A simple question about boiling water

Discussion in 'Chemistry' started by Magical Realist, Sep 10, 2012.

  1. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Where does the air come from that is inside the bubbles of boiling water? What is the composition of this gas? (not sure if this is a chemistry question..sorry if I misposted this)
     
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  3. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/bubbles/page.html

    This was a very simple search. Haven't seen you around for awhile. I hope you didn't come back just to ask this question?

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  5. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    Ah ha! That explains it. I just didn't know water vapor was a gas in itself. I thought it was more like a gas that just had water droplets in it. Oh well. Learn something everyday! Yeah, I took a year off from this place because I got trolled alot. It appears these people are gone--I hope. Nice to see you again.
     
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  7. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    It's better if you spot the trolls before you get trolled, that way you won't get suckered into feeding them. The ones you were referring to may be gone, but there's never a real shortage of trolls. I'm not going to mention any names, but do keep your eyes open, that way you can avoid the obvious trolls.
     
  8. wlminex Banned Banned

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    THE 'steam' (water vapor) in the boiling bubbles then condenses, as it cools . . . back to water.

    Now OP (note, albeit slightly off-topic), try to envision a similar mechanism occuring in a pre-big bang universe . . . . . a high-energy subquantum (subplanckian) matrix . . . . that effectively 'evaporates' at random loci (like bubbles in boiling water), then condenses (cools), yielding an energy --> mass condensate (of sorts).
     
  9. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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    Why do you do that? A legitimate question is asked and answered and then you interject some silly pseudoscience goofyness into a science conversation.
     
  10. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    I will be on my guard. Last time there was this one person who posted immediately in every thread I'd start and would start playing 21 questions. I immediately put the bugger on my ignore list but he/she never stopped with the harrassment. Maybe he died or something. One can always hope

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  11. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

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    OK...since we are asking simple questions about water. What causes water to evaporate at room temperature? As far as I know...solids don't evaporate, why do liquids?
     
  12. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    Dry Ice evaporates as a solid, without any liquid phase. Can't say I know of any others though.
     
  13. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

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    I think they call that sublimation. When it goes from solid directly to gas. I was just curious what causes liquid water to turn into vapor, even though it's below it's boiling point.

    (If you're wondering why I'm asking...I had a tripped out dream the other night, where I was in a place where water didn't evaporate. It was one weird ass dream.)
     
  14. wlminex Banned Banned

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    Mac: any liquid (and some solids) existing at atmospheric conditions exhibit specific vapor pressures in equilibrium with atmospheric conditions. Similar to dry ice, regular (water) ice (e.g., snow) has a similar 'sublimation' property under certain below-freezing conditions, but to a much lesser extent.
     
  15. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    When you think about it, if water didn't evaporate as it does, we wouldn't be here to talk about it now.

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  16. wlminex Banned Banned

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    .

    Origin: ANS why?. . . . Simple . . . because the OP's post brought to my recollection that have I considered an analogue re: boiling water, bubbles, etc. in my 'pet' alternative hypothesis. Nature provides us with such analogues that assist us (at least, me!) in the visualization process. Please NOTE that I included the paranthetical caveat that my post was 'slightly off-topic'. "Silly pseudoscience goofiness" is your opinion, and you neglected to insert . . . IMO in your post.
     
  17. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    Evaporation is due to Vapour Pressure. Solids have a vapour pressure as well (hence sublimation).
     
  18. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Moderator note: wlminex has been banned for 1 day for posting off-topic nonsense in a Science subforum.
     
  19. Emil Valued Senior Member

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  20. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Notice, you can boil water at room temperature by reducing the pressure.
     
  21. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

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    Just because a substance is solid at room temperature does not guarantee it has zero vapor pressure.
    Cesium has a vapor pressure of about two billionths of an atmosphere at room temperature.
    Perfluorooctanoic acid has a vapor pressure of about 40 millionths of an atmosphere at room temperature.
    Naphthalene has a vapor pressure of about one ten-thousanth of an atmosphere at room temperature.
    (By comparison, water has a vapor pressure of about 3% of an atmosphere at room temperature.)
     
  22. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    Do you know what solid has the highest vapor pressure when at room temperature?
    Answer, confirmed by leaving it unatteded on a busy public street, is: ($20 gold coin) They evaporate 100% in a few minutes.

    I had work colligue who when he could not find a tool he needed often said: "That dammed ------- has evaporated again."
     
  23. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    Probable not true if "We" means advanced life forms. True there would be no rivers, but any initially full lakes would still exist. Both they and oceans shores could support dry land creatures, especially those that do not need fresh water to drink. (Actually the oceans would be mainly fresh water without rivers delivering various salts to them).

    The unusual and essential for life forms characteristic of H2O is that the solid form (ice) is ~10% less dense than the liquid form (water) is. If water were like almost all other materials with a denser solid phase, then the rivers and even the oceans would freeze from the bottom up and probably liquid water would not even exist in Equatorial Ocean, except perhaps briefly in a thin layer during very warm spells.

    I have explained water´s strange behavior in several posts but briefly again:
    Both Hs are on the same side of the O in H2O with 105 degree angular separation. Thus H2O is an electrically polarized molecule. Water less than 4C is mainly polymer chains of polarized monomer: (--O.2H+). I.e. water is nH2O where the average "n" (n is an integer) increases as water cools below 4C. I.e. some cold water molecules are:

    (--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+) the n= 5 case and others are:

    (--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+)(--O.2H+) the n =7 case, but of course they are not the linear chains I can illustrate here. Cold water is a random mix of these various length twisted "n chains" - Sort of like a bowl of soft spaghetti with increasing larger voids between the strings as the temperature approaches 0C. At 0C, the ice has ~10% of the gross volume as voids of zero mass, so it floats.
     

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